Early May 2017

The first weekend of May was supposed to have been the season opener for a number of my local tracks but it wasn’t to be.  From the beginning  of the month it seemed to rain continuously each day to such a point , that serious flooding occurred in the Gatineau area of Quebec, across the river from Ottawa. 

The weekend of 5/6/7 May, just did not occur as far as racing was concerned.  Just to name a few, the races at Mohawk International Raceway, Cornwall Motor Speedway, Airborne Park Raceway, Brighton Speedway , R.P.M Speedway and Can Am Speedway were all rained out.

Luckily for me , the Ottawa Senators are still on the Stanley Cup Play Off run, and on Saturday I was glued to the TV to watch them  eliminate the New York Rangers to advance even further.

As far as my Myasthenia Gravis condition is concerned, I only had one trip to the medics, during this period.

Just prior to the following weekend (Thursday 11 May) the Senators were playing the first game of the next round, where they made easy work of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The next day (Friday 12 May ) was race day, and with no rain in my area for the past three days, things looked good for the rescheduled opener at my local Mohawk International Raceway.

The rest of the weekend , looked all set for another wet one.

The Mohawk International Raceway, New York,  is my nearest track . Although I live in Cornwall Ontario, the M.I.R is actually nearer in distance than the Cornwall Motor Speedway.

I was there nice and early and was pleased to see the line up of cars waiting to get in the pits , was the longest I’d seen for many years. I guess everyone was hungry to go racing after the previous weeks rain out. The grandstands were also packed with fans too.

After taking a look around the pits I attended the large assembly at the drivers meeting.

One of the additions to the regulars, was the ‘Doctor’ Danny Johnson , driving the loaned Delormier car # 22D.  

Once the racing got under way I joined my buddy Don Simpson on the infield at the corner of three and four.

The track was in good shape, and it was a great night of racing.

The big race of the night was dominated by Tim Fuller who led the Modified Feature unchallenged for most of the race.

The Sportsman Feature was a close fought race between Airborne Speedways ‘invading’ Nick Heywood # 29 and local driver Robert Delormier. They crossed the line side by side, and Delormier got the decision by inches. 

With the large quantity of cars , the management did well to get the program moving along swiftly. The races were over soon after 11-00 pm and I was out of the gate and heading off on the short drive to home.

Well, I thought it would be a short drive home !  With the large turn out of race cars and fans, the unexpecting  Canada Customs were not prepared, and the wait to get across was 30 minutes.

As forecast, Saturday (13 May) turned out to be another wet one, and I sought solace once again in front of my TV set. That’s the way it went for the rest of the weekend.

The Spanish Grand Prix from Barcelona was on live TV at 8-00 am, on Sunday ,so I was out of bed early for that. That was a good race with Lewis Hamilton taking the checkers once again in the Mercedes. Sebastien Vettel was second in the Ferrari with Daniel Riciardo third in the Red Bull.

There was more good TV on Monday night ( 15 May ) with game two of the Senators and Penguins series. In a very even game, the Sens lost this one 1-0 .